What is "internet-explorer"

Windows Internet Explorer, also known by the abbreviations IE, MSIE, Winie or Internet Explorer, is a proprietary Internet browser first produced by Microsoft on August 23, 1995.

Internet Explorer is an integrated component since Microsoft Windows 98. It is available as a separate free product for older versions of the operating system.

It has been running Windows since version 95 OSR2. Starting with version 6 included in XP in 2002, a major browser update was offered to Windows XP users along with Service Pack 2 (although there has always been a monthly cycle of browser fixes). Version 7 of Internet Explorer, released in October 2006, reached users available for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 (with critical update status), as well as being pre-installed on Windows Vista and Windows 7 (version 8 Beta) (where it has some extra functions). Version 8, released on March 19, 2009, is available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

For some time, Microsoft has released versions of Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, Solaris and HP-UX. These versions have been cancelled. The browser still runs on Linux, through the Wine compatibility layer.

Since the release of version 7 of the browser, the official name was then changed from "Microsoft Internet Explorer" to "Windows Internet Explorer" because of the integration with the Windows Live line. In Windows Vista it is officially called "Windows Internet Explorer in Windows Vista" and in Windows XP it is officially called "Windows Internet Explorer for Windows XP".

One of its main competitors was Netscape, now discontinued. Currently, its biggest competitors are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. In March 2013 it was the second most used browser in the world, with 29% of users, against 37% of Google Chrome and 21% of Mozilla Firefox according to data from Statcounter.